Permanent Priesthood of Jesus

Hebrews 7 Part 2

Last week we started chapter 7, I stated the three points I wanted to discuss;

1. Tithing to Melchizedek!!!
2. Describing Melchizedek as a picture of Jesus the Christ, King and Priest forever!!!
3. The need for a New Priesthood

We discussed that Abraham gave a tithe to the priest of the Most High God Melchizedek. Which was before the Levitical law required tithing. I made the point that there were probably some unwritten laws or requirements to tithe to kings and/or gods [little g] before the Levitical law of tithing.

I brought the great work done by the faithful giver from VCC.

New testament giving is found in 2 Corinthians 9:7 [So let] each one [give] as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. Give where you are being fed and growing spiritually.

Next we look at the Holy Spirit giving us a description of Melchizedek as a picture of Jesus after all the heavy weighty doctrine in chapter six!!!

As if the God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is saying after writing that chapter, look I has given you all the signs of Christ’s first and second coming beforehand [in fact there are 1,800 prophecies of His second coming, which over 300 of them are in the new testament] , and all of Christ’s works written beforehand all located in these 66 books written by 40 men of God, for you to strengthen your faith and to contend for the faith.

Today we will look at why there is a need for a New Priesthood.

[Hebrews 7:11 NKJV] 11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need [was there] that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

First let’s look at the law, in the Book of Genesis God gave Adam 1 law.

[Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV] 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

We all know what happens next, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the forbidden tree and sin enters the world. Humans go from sinless nature to having a sinful nature. Sin causing man to first die spiritually and then physically!!!

God gave the Hebrews through Moses the Ten Commandments, which they couldn’t and didn’t keep. These can be summed up in Matthew 22:37-40.

[Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV] 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is [the] first and great commandment. 39 “And [the] second [is] like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  

Then God gave the Hebrews the 613 Levitical laws through Moses, the religious leaders made impossible to keep. They turned the commandments of God into traditions of man.

[Matthew 15:4-9 NKJV] 4 “For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me [is] a gift [to God]”– 6 ‘then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with [their] lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching [as] doctrines the commandments of men.’ “

All this to say that God knew Adam and Eve would eat of the forbidden fruit, God the Hebrews wouldn’t keep the ten commandments and that the Hebrews would turn the 613 laws of Moses into the traditions of men!!!

So what purpose does the law serve!!!

[Galatians 3:19-25 NKJV] 19 What purpose then [does] the law [serve]? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; [and it was] appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not [mediate] for one [only], but God is one. 21 [Is] the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor [to bring us] to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

[Romans 7:7 NKJV] 7 What shall we say then? [Is] the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

So the law is a tutor to show us that we can’t redeem ourselves!!! Because none of us can keep the law. 

[Galatian 3:10-12 NKJV] 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed [is] everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God [is] evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”

[1 John 2:1-2 NKJV] 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

I know we have mentioned this before, Christ pays for the sins of the world, what is the judgment to come.

[John 3:16-19 NKJV] 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The following verses give us the reason for the change of the priesthood.

[Hebrews 7:12 NKJV] 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. 

Here is the change in the law or covenant.

[Jeremiah 31:31-33 NKJV] 31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah– 32 “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 “But this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

[Matthew 26:28 NKJV] 28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

[Hebrews 7:13-14] 13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. 14 For [it is] evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 

In fact only those who were sons of Aaron could perform the duties of the priest.

[2 Chronicles 26:18-19 NKJV] 18 And they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, “[It is] not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You [shall have] no honor from the LORD God.” 19 Then Uzziah became furious; and he [had] a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the incense altar.

[Hebrews 7:15-17 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest 16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. 17 For He testifies: “You [are] a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

[Micah 5:2 NKJV] 2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, [Though] you are little among the thousands of Judah, [Yet] out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth [are] from of old, From everlasting.”

There was a need for a New Priesthood to change from the mortal to the immortal. The priesthood of Jesus is eternal vs the Levitical priesthood which ends at the death of a high priest.

[Hebrews 7:18-19 NKJV] 18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect [teleioō means to complete]; on the other hand, [there is the] bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

[Galatians 3:13-18 NKJV] 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed [is] everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though [it is] only a man’s covenant, yet [if it is] confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 17 And this I say, [that] the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance [is] of the law, [it is] no longer of promise; but God gave [it] to Abraham by promise.

The New Priesthood of Jesus in the order of Melchizedek is IRREVOCABLE-UNCHANGEABLE-IMMUTABLE-IRREVERSIBLE-PERMANENT!!!

[Hebrews 7:20-24 NKJV] 20 And inasmuch as [He was] not [made priest] without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The LORD has sworn And will not relent, ‘You [are] a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ “), 22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. 23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

[Hebrews 7:25 NKJV] 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

[1 Timothy 2:3-6 NKJV] 3 For this [is] good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For [there is] one God and one Mediator between God and men, [the] Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

[Romans 8:33-39 NKJV] 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? [It is] God who justifies. 34 Who [is] he who condemns? [It is] Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [Shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[Hebrews 7:26-28 NKJV] 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, [who is] holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, [appoints] the Son who has been perfected forever.

[2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NKJV] 17 Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things [are] of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore [you] on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.